Archive for the ‘Guardian’ Category

This blog post will be slightly different from my previous entries. In this post I will do my best to explain the different types of Crowd Control found in Lord of the Rings Online.

Daze
The Daze is probably the most common type of CC used in group content. A Daze freezes a mob in place, and makes them unable to perform any action. Daze skills in the game have a duration from a few seconds up to 30 seconds. Some classes can keep single mobs perma-dazed, as it does not trigger any immunity at the end of its duration.
Damage will however break a daze, so be careful with the AoE.

Stun
The Stun behaves almost exactly like the Daze, the exception being that a Stun is not broken by damage. Therefore, Stun skills in the game usually have a much shorter duration than Daze skills. A Stun will also trigger immunity at the end of its duration, where the mob cannot be either Stunned or Dazed for a few seconds.
Some classes’ Stun skills will also trigger a Fellowship Manuevre.

Root
A Root will, as the name suggests, root a mob in place. The mob will still be able to perform actions, and most mobs will ignore the aggro table if rooted. Any player coming within range of the Rooted mobs will be attacked, regardless of aggro. Rooting ranged mobs serves no purpose unless Line of Sight is also broken.
Roots are typically broken from damage being done to the mob, although there can be skills with only a certain percentage chance of being broken on damage. Monster Player Wargs, and some types of mobs in the game have the ability to perma-root players. To break the perma root the mob usually needs to be interrupted or Dazed/Stunned.

Fear
Fears send a mob fleeing, and renders them unable to perform any action. While Fears can be good for temporary CC, i.e. getting a mob off a healer, it can also become quite chaotic if you send multiple mobs running in fear, and can complicate aggro pickup for tanks. Fears are broken by damage.
Players, or Monster Players, in PvP can be feared, but will still be able to move around freely, but will be uncapable of performing any actions.

If you feel I missed something, or feel I’ve got something wrong, please post a comment!

So thanks to CSTM’s facebook page, I found this, a collection of screenshots from Lotro, all the way back from early beta.

I started playing Lotro in January 2009, and has since then managed to snap almost 1000 screenshots. I recently went through all my old computers/harddrives, to make sure none of my old screenshots would get lost.

So why not share a bunch of them?

2009-11-20 – The very first screenshot I found, may very well have been the first I took. My hunter posing in Evendim

2009-11-22 – Oh, that old place! Probably the first time I ventured in there

2009-12-12 – Planning raids and smoking pipes in the Kinhsip house

2010-01-06 – My captain has found his look-a-like!

2010-01-17 – All dressed up and nowhere to go!

2010-09-12 – DN, low resolution and lots on the screen.

2010-11-02 – Crowded auctioneer in 21st hall

2010-12-05 – School, or is it Library? Never could keep those two apart

I’ve been quiet for quite some time now, but there’s been a good reason for it.

I’ve been in the Helms Deep Beta since Beta1, and simply didn’t want to risk breaking the NDA by mistake. But today the NDA has been dropped, and I think it’s time I give my view on what can be expected Nov 18 when HD rolls out.

Class revamp
It’s been known for quite some time now that there would be a major class revamp with Helms Deep. I completely understand the reason why the decision to revamp the classes this way was made, but I can tell you that I am very, very dissapointed in the way it’s been done.
You will not recognize your class anymore.
Hybrid builds will barely exist
Many of your skills will be gone.

I’ve played this game for almost five years now, and in that time I have gotten to know, and learned to love, the classes in this game. I love the way I have a massive array of skills to choose from, and the fact that I have had the option to choose exactly what traits I’ve wanted. And I would actually say that this is what really sets Lotro apart from many other MMO’s.

The problem with this system is that while this was all well and balanced at 60, or even 65, it has now become evident that most classes are actually very overpowered. Just take a look at the champion, they have 2 big bubbles, a full morale heal, massive single target and AOE dps. It’s going to be really difficult to create challenging endgame content when all classes are basically godmode. So under normal circumstances, I would actually be ok with this change, because even if it’s poorly implemented (which it unfortunately is), it’s something that needed to happen sooner or later.

But if the reason for the changes to the classes were to enable the developers to once again create challenging content for the players, why is there no such endgame coming with Helms Deep?

Because noone in their right mind will be able to call the Epic Battles and endgame. First of all, you can start them at level 10, so what’s the point of raising the level cap to 95 in the first place? There is no new endgame that actually requires you to be at the level cap, and there’s no such endgame in sight either, as Turbine have stated that the Epic Battles is the only group content planned for HD.

The only reason I see to level up to 95 would be to experience the old scaled content with the nine new classes we get with this expansion, it’s just a shame I won’t ever get to try them again with the nine old classes, because they are gone forever.

How Turbine could go forward with these changes after the uproar among beta testers from day one is beyond me, and it really proves that Turbine has completely stopped listening to a major part of their players.

I’m sure there will be a major boost in player numbers when HD goes live, there always is when a new expansion comes. But that boost will pale in comparison to the drop of players we will see within a few months of the release. Turbine has already gotten rid of a large chunk of raiders and PvP’ers, and now the axe comes down hard on those who have endured the hard times of horrible RoR lair-raids and massive lag in Etten in the hopes of brighter times ahead. But instead of actually fixing what is broken in the game they throw more things noone asked for at us.

I have not bought HD, and have no intention of doing so, paying that much for another 3 books of the epic quest line and a few glorifed skirmishes is something I wont do. I will probably play for quite some time yet as no other (released) game has really caught my interest, but I think that I will probably spend most of my time creep side until the day it’s time for me to find another game.

I must confess, I haven’t been all that excited about skirmishes. But now that the NDA has been lifted, I’ve checked around, and nobody seems to have anything bad to say about them. So far I’ve only read positive info about them, so maybe it’s time to get excited.

Also heard that the lvl 62 skill for Hunters is a port to Mirkwood. Kinda boring, but will probably be quite useful.

Continued to level my Guardian yesterday. I’m now at lvl 19 and played i about 10 hours or so. I’ve got the played time for level 10 and 15 saved, and i’ll post them here when I get the chance, along with the level 20 time, wich will come pretty soon. No game time tonight though.

Soon it’s time to crit new armour for the Guardian too, so I guess I’ll have to put my metalsmith Captain to work. Perhaps time for new bling bling too, if my jeweller has any recipies for stuff better than what you get from the quests. I’m currently working my way through the Barrow-downs, and it’s soon time for GB. I’ve done alot of the quests in the Lone Lands, but I still have Weavers Beneath the Ruins and Our Greatest Find left there to complete before I can move further along the road to Ost Guruth.

Let my Guardian gain some rest xp yesterday, and instead finished two trollshaw-deeds with the Hunter. The Worm-deed was pretty easy to complete, but the crawler-deed took ages. Anyway, now it’s done, and I’ve maxed out my Determination.

I’ll try to level my Guardian tonight, if nothing else comes up. I’ve also decided to use Destiny Points to buy the xp buff. I never use them for anything else, so they might aswell come to good use there.

Started a new char this weekend. I had a level 11 dwarf guardian on my account, wich I never played, so I deleted it, and created a new guardian (Man). Got it up to level fifteen in just over 6 hours, if I remebmer correctly. This Guardian will be all about leveling. No effort will be put into any proffession and no grinding for deeds will be done. Now that there’s a 10% exp buff on the server, i’ve got a feeling it won’t be that hard to get him up to atleast level 40 before Mirkwood comes out. Ofcourse, that means I’m gonna have to play it alot, and let my other alts rest for a while.

Talking of rest… That is the one thing that stands in the way of even faster leveling. I get no (or well, very little) rest XP bonus if I play the Guardian all the time. And I don’t want to waste my destiny points on it either. Oh well, we’ll see what happens.

In the end, it’s pretty much all about wich alt I want to be able to take with me in to Mirkwood. The Hunter is already at 60, but the others are all around 20-30. The Captain would be awesome, but so would the Runekeeper.